Walking to work today I happened to see a car with a “Go Vegan!” bumper sticker right next to a “Darwin fish” sticker. This isn’t particularly surprising, and in my neighborhood there are plenty of cars expressing such progressive sentiments. But after thinking about it a bit, I decided there was a subtle, but significant,…

More on the mysterious meanings of “conservative,” “liberal,” and “moderate” from Get Religion: What I have seen so far has — surprise! — raised more questions for me about the way the mainstream media use certain loaded words. This time around, I am wondering what the word “moderate” means when applied to members of the…

We’re hearing a lot about how the Republicans are showcasing their “moderates” at the convention in an attempt to woo swing voters. The puzzling thing about this claim is that the so-called moderates don’t seem to necessarily have much in common, nor are they necessarily moderate in any straightforward sense. Consider: the three prominent “moderates”…

Sed Contra and Scandal of Particularity both have follow-up posts on the Rod Dreher article mentioned here yesterday. Hugo Schwyzer has a good post on “supply” versus “demand” approaches to reducing abortion. And check out Beliefnet’s Steven Waldman’s blog from the GOP convention covering the religion-and-politics beat.

I admire the boldness with which these persons undertake to speak of God. In addressing their argument to infidels, their first chapter is to prove Divinity from the works of nature. I should not be astonished at their enterprise, if they were addressing their argument to the faithful; for it is certain that those who…

Bill Vallicella has an incisive post on the meaning and importance of reverence, a concept that has fallen into much disrepute in our culture. Postmodern culture despises the idea that we owe anything or anyone reverence, because it flies in the face of the kind of debased egalitarianism, unthinkingly embraced by many, that flattens distinctions…

One of the institutions conservatives want to conserve is the family. They rightly observe that intact families are a necessary condition for any stable and healthy social order. So why do conservatives tend to support policies that undermine the stability of families? That’s what Rod Dreher wants to know: I stand with the late Russell…

David Brooks lays out an agenda for a re-invented GOP.

Plot your place on the political map (via Naked Villainy). Looks like I’m a shade to the right of Tony Blair and a bit of an idealist. (Though, why are Stalin and Hitler classified as “idealists”??)

(The continuation of a long-neglected series. See Part I here and Part II here.) To deal with evil requires understanding and dealing with the sources of evil. Christians believe that human evil is rooted in a primal turning away from God. In rejecting God, we set the stage for all kinds of evil (cf. Romans…